Parallels of Love
by LovelyB
Summary: After speaking with a suspect, Grissom realizes what he needs to do to make things right with Sara.


**Disclaimer:** Only Samuel, Mary, and Christy are mine. Sadly I don't own anyone else.

**A/N:** Thanks to my wonderful betas Joan and Susan.

**Spoilers:** Anything up to 9x02 is fair game

**Summary:** After Grissom speaks with a suspect, he realizes what he must do to fix things with Sara.

_"How can I forget you when you're always on my mind? How can I not want you when you're all I want inside? How can I let you go when I can't see us apart? How can I not love you when you control my heart?"_

-Source Unknown

**Parallels of Love**

The setting sun over the vast Las Vegas desert shimmered on the buildings as it began to set. Another day had passed in the city that is a world all on its own. Today had been a quiet day in the hustle and bustle of everyday life there. Samuel McKartlyn was walking along the sidewalk he had walked for the last year. He had come to Vegas on a whim when his uncle was opening a casino, The Golden Wheel, and had needed someone to manage it.

Samuel entered the casino and scanned the crowed like he did every day. Today was different though. Today he spotted a woman with long red hair and the most beautiful green eyes he'd ever seen. He'd know those eyes anywhere and as he made his way over to her, all he could think about was how much he was in love with this woman.

When he reached her, her back was towards him, "Well if it isn't Mary Whitman."

The woman turned to him and forced a smile. "Sam..." Mary stood there for a moment lost in the man's eyes. "You look well. Are you here on vacation?"

Staring at Mary, Samuel couldn't remember why the two of them had broken up. "No, I run this place."

"I didn't think you'd ever leave Lafayette," Mary mumbled.

"My uncle needed my help, and I always wanted to break free."

Mary's heart ached at the words her former lover had spoken. It hadn't been so long ago when she'd needed him and offered a way out. He'd told her no. Now, here he was far from the life she thought he could never leave behind.

A man walked up behind Mary and grabbed her waist causing her jump. "I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to make you jump." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"It's okay Marc. I was just talking to..." Mary looked between the two men. "Marc this is Sam. He runs the casino."

"Oh..." Was all Marc could say before the child in the stroller he was pushing began to fuss. "I'm going to take Christy for a walk, and hopefully get her to sleep for you."

"Alright. Have fun, and be careful" Mary gave both Marc and Christy a kiss, before both left her side.

Samuel smiled to himself. "Is she yours?"

Mary nodded as she watched Marc and Christy leave.

"How old is she?"

Mary turned her focus back to Samuel. She hated where this was going, surely he knew who the baby was. He couldn't have forgotten so soon.

"Ten months tomorrow." Mary looked down at her watch quickly. "I should go; I have a busy day tomorrow."

Samuel did a quick calculation in his head as Mary started to walk away. When he realized when the child would've been conceived, he got angry. "She belongs to me, doesn't she?" He stared at Mary with hardness in his eyes.

"No Sam. She doesn't _belong_ to you. She's not property." Mary shook her head in disgust as she walked away from him.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Samuel rushed after her and grabbed her arm to turn her around. "Christy is my daughter, isn't she?"

Mary couldn't believe this. The nerve of him wanting claim on the child now. Now after he shut them both out. Now after he had signed away all rights to Christy and she herself had long moved on with her life. "Biologically , yes. Emotionally, no. In our separation agreement you signed all future rights away of her."

"That's not fair. I want to be able to see her! It's my right as her father!" Samuel shouted causing people to stop and watch the scene played out before them.

"You're not getting this Sam. You are not now, and will never be, her father! I think of you as a sperm donor. I won't allow you to hurt her like you hurt me." Mary gave Samuel a smug look before walking away once again.

Samuel shook his head. "Walk away, that's what you're good at!"

Mary stopped in her tracks. "You know what Sam, I'm so over you. You want to play the hurt victim in this, fine, whatever. But just remember you're the one who showed me the door and shut it behind me so don't stand there and act hurt."

"I'll sue you for custody and when I get it I'll make sure you never see her again! Then you'll pay for keeping her from me." Samuel gave Mary a smug smile as he walked past her.

"Try to take her from me and you'll be sorry Sam." Mary blurted as he walked away.

Hours passed and Samuel's co-workers were getting worried because none had seen him in a few hours. He hadn't answered any pages or taken any phone calls. They started to get a bad feeling and sent a security guard, Buddy James, to his office- the last place he was seen.

Upon entering the room Buddy noticed Samuel's lifeless body, his head against his desk and a pool of blood at his feet. Mr. James had been in Vegas long enough to know if you find a dead body to leave it alone and call the cops. So that's what he did.

It didn't take too long before the police showed up along with Grissom, Nick, and Catherine. While the investigators processed the scene, Brass interviewed some potential witnesses.

In the office, the three CSIs were going over the scene. Catherine noticed a piece of paper on the floor next to Samuel's body. She bent down to get a closer look. "Someone wasn't over someone." Catherine snapped a few photos a letter lying on the floor next to their vic and then turned to Grissom for a moment. "Dearest Mary, I know you said you've moved on but truth be told, I haven't. For a long time I thought I had until I saw you today. Looking into your eyes brought back all those feelings and I found this quote on how I feel about you: '_I thought that by telling myself and everyone else that I hated you, that sooner or later I would come to believe it. But I now realize that by lying, it makes me want you even more.'_ … That's where it ends."

The rest of the processing was uneventful. When they were finished with the scene and getting ready to head back to the lab, Brass found them and explained they might already have a suspect, and she was working in the entertainment room at the very moment. Grissom and Catherine asked Nick to take the evidence back to the lab while they went to speak with the woman. about her knowledge of Samuel's death.

When they found Miss Whitman, she was in the center of the room speaking to another woman. Both seemed to be talking about the stage area and the seating around the front of the stage. Both women were showing each other papers stuck to clip boards, and neither saw the trio approach.

"Miss Whitman." Catherine spoke as she Grissom and Brass walked up behind her.

"Yes?" Mary turned around looking at the three of them. "Can I help you with something?"

"I'm Captain Brass and this is Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows from the crime lab. We'd like to ask you a few questions about Samuel McKartlyn."

Mary's face turned red with anger, she couldn't believe he had the nerve to call the cops on her. "I cannot believe him. He's...he's"

"He's dead." Brass finished Mary's sentence.

"What?" Mary shook her head, thinking she heard incorrectly. "What are you talking about?"

"He was found in his office, a letter opener plunged through his heart." Catherine explained to her. "Is there something you know about it?"

"No...one moment."

Mary turned to her co-worker and motioned to her that she was stepping away for a moment and to carry on. After that, she led the trio to a table and chairs on the far side of the room.

"How well did you know the victim?" Brass asked.

"I thought I knew him very well, but after seeing him yesterday and speaking to him, I don't think I ever really knew him." Mary looked Brass deep in the eyes, for she had nothing to hide.

"Witnesses heard you threaten him." Grissom told the girl.

Mary stared at them in shock. "And yet they didn't hear him threaten me? What kind of witnesses are those?"

"You kept him from his daughter." Grissom stated to the young woman sitting across from him.

Mary rolled her eyes and snorted. "Me keep him from his daughter? Me! He kept himself from his daughter. He got so wrapped up in not wanting to take a leap of faith with me...he nearly made me jump alone. For many years I felt as if I was drowning in an ocean of emotion and many times I felt he would just stand of the shore and watch me as I went under. Then other times, he would pull me out of the strong current long enough to breathe before letting me go again.

"We had been together for two years when it happened...One night after work I was attacked by a man with a gun. He beat, raped, and robbed me and then left me for dead in that alley buried underneath garbage." The memory of that night brought a wave of tears to her eyes. "It's the worst feeling of all to lose control of what's happening to you. After that, I felt lost, and it just got worse day by day. Finally one day I couldn't do it anymore. I stopped caring, I couldn't sleep and I felt as if I was going to...I felt like if I didn't get away, I'd kill myself. So I left, leaving him a note telling him why I had to go." Her words caught in her throat as she carried on. I felt bad doing that, but I knew if I was to tell him in person, he'd ask me to say and I knew I wasn't strong enough to say no." She turned her head trying to make the tears go away. "I wanted to turn back so many times- to run into his arms, for him to hold me tight but I knew leaving would only make us stronger in the long run."

"So that's when you found out you were pregnant?" Catherine asked Mary.

"No..." Mary wiped more tears from her eyes. "I got news one day that his brother was working an undercover job and was killed by a drive by shooting. I went back there to support him. I mean, technically, we were still together. A few days after the funeral I noticed he was starting to get into a deep depression. I wanted him to go away with me, to escape. He thought it was ridiculous and said no, he needed to be there for his family. He didn't even want to leave in the future. Then that night we were watching a show and the guy on it made some stupid cryptic comment to his girlfriend on how he doesn't want to be with her anymore and she should just leave him because for all she went through for him he didn't have the balls to break it off himself. Sam said something along the lines of 'I know how he feels'. Do you know what it's like to love someone? You'd do anything for them and they tell you to leave? It hurt. I felt as if my life with him had been wasted."

"So you left again." Catherine stated with a snarkiness to her voice.

"He wanted me to and I knew I couldn't stay there- the memories and pain were still there. I could feel them around my throat and I felt I didn't have a choice other than leaving. I had been gone for nearly two months when I found out I was pregnant. Sam and I were at arms then. We had been living together and a lot of the things in the apartment we bought together along with bringing some of our own things into it. After I left we started fighting over things, and we got our lawyers involved and they were asking us what we wanted. It took them three months get him to let me have what I wanted and I just wanted my personal effects, photos, books, CDs, and that stuff." Mary smiled thinking about her daughter. "And I wanted the baby. I included a letter to him, telling him I was sorry we had to end things like this and I wished things could've been different. I told him about his child and if he wanted to see the baby I wouldn't stop him and we could work something out, but if he didn't then to sign the papers I was including in the property settlement...Sam signed the papers. He signed away all his rights to her. There were times even after the papers were signed I went call him and tell him about the baby. I would dial his number only to hang up with only one number left to dial. When I first felt the baby move I was so excited and called him, it wasn't until I heard his voice on the other line until I realized what I had done and what I needed to do. He didn't want me or the baby, so..."

"You moved on." Grissom stated, not looking at Mary.

"I had to, if not for my sake, for Christy's. I couldn't expose her to his definition of love. I couldn't take the risk of him loving her the way he did me. I could take it, but a child would never understand. I warned him if he didn't get it together and figure out what he wanted he would be too late. And he was."

Catherine rolled her eyes as she looked at the woman across from her. "So what, he comes back and wants to have a life with his daughter and you're afraid and kill him?"

Mary shook her head, "I didn't kill him. I'd never do that to Christy. One day she might want to know who he is...was. If I were to kill him then she would hate me forever." She looked to the back of the room and saw Marc holding Christy, watching her. "If we're done here, I have business to get to."

"Go ahead." Grissom shrugged finally looking Mary in the eyes.

Both Catherine and Grissom watched as the woman walked to the back of the room, wiping her face free of tears."

"What do you think? You think she did it?" Catherine turned to Grissom who seemed to be in his own world.

"People do stupid things for the ones they love. But our vic was a casino manager, I'm sure he had more dangerous enemies than a former lover looking for revenge. Someone could've seen the argument between the two of them and staged this to look like a non-professional hit to cover their tracks. Look into it and let me know what you find out." Grissom shook his head as he stood up.

"Okay." Catherine said as Grissom walked away from her. She knew what her friend needed to do and she wished him well.

After Grissom reached the back of the room he pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. His fingers hovered over the numbers for a moment before dialling. Her voice on the other line nearly made him melt. 'Has it always been that sweet?' He thought to himself.

Shaking his head he cleared his throat. "Hey...please don't hang up, just listen. I'm sorry. I'm taking full blame in this, okay? I'm giving Ecklie a month's notice and then I'd like to join you...for however long you want me. And Sara, I..." Grissom swallowed hard, knowing she needed to hear it just as much as he needed to tell her, "I love you."

--The End--


End file.
